Improvement in barbed-wire fences



E. V. WILKES. Barbed-Wire Penoe;

No. 216,637. Paented June 17, 1879.

N. PETERS HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD v.w1LKEs, on KANsAs crTY, MfssoURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN BARBED-WIRE FE NCES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 216,637. dated June 17, 1879; application filed July 18, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD V. WILKEs, of Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Barbed-Wire Fences; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the in`- vention, Which Will enable others skilled in the art to whicl it appertains to make and use the same, reference being h ad to tle accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention is a four-pronged barb made of two pieces of wire, and is fastened 'to the Wire strands of the fence at any desired intervals, its object being to keep animals away from the fence.

The barb, as shown in Figures 1 and 2 on accompanying drawings, consists of two pieces of wire of practically equal length, each bent in the form of a staple. Each staple is given an are shape in its plane-that is, a plane passing through the body and two prongs of the staple is of are shape. The staples are then laid, one on each side of the wire, so that the two prongs of each staple may lie on tle same side of the wire and the arcs may embrace it; and the two prongs of each are brought sufciently near each other, passed through the bottom bend or belly of the opposite staple, and drawn tight, when the staples will be interlocked, with the wire completely encircled between them. The ends or pron gs of the two staples should now be on the same line, but pointing in opposite directions. One end or preng of each staple is now bent back over the loop or belly of the other staple until all the pointed ends are at right angles with each other, or nearly so, and the fastening is completed.

I claim- The barb formed of the two interlocking staples, having the two prongs of each passed through the loop or belly of the other and bent, substantially as described.

In testimony that I clain the foregoing as my own I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

E. V. VVILKES.

Witnesses:

A. W. RUcKnR, J. R. BROWN. 

